America’s population is growing fast, On the morning of Sunday, July 13, the population clock maintained by the U.S. Census showed 335,080,502 residents of the United States. A new soul arrives within the boundaries of the United States every eight seconds. Every eleven seconds, one departs.
Ever larger quantities of the elderly are in no hurry to depart. During the last decade, the population of those 65 and older in the United States increased by over 34 percent or 13 8 million persons. Out of 77.5 million Americans aged 60 and older, Ulster County counts among its residents somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 persons. Sooner or later, the poorer of them will become a drain on county resources.
Enter ex-county legislator Richard Gerentine and Rupco’s Kevin O’Connor, recipients of a $20-million low-income housing tax-credit grant awarded last week by the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (Nyshcr) for Silver Gardens, a 57-unit senior supportive and affordable campus in the Town of Lloyd.
Gerentine’s been in the business for decades. Beginning with Jenny’s Garden I in 1998 and followed by Jenny’s Garden 2 in 2004, Golden View in 2008 and Milton Harvest in 2011, Gerentine has constructed a small kingdom within the boundaries of Lloyd and Marlborough, Those projects have brought 164 housing units for seniors aged 62 and older, the majority affordable to those making half the Area Median Income or less.
“Basically, you’re giving back to your community,” explained Gerentine of his business model. “You’re providing a service to elderly people, making a clean, affordable and safe place where they’re dwelling.”
The Silver Gardens apartment complex, now assured of funding, is located near Golden View. Apartments in the hamlet of Highland.
“Rupco has managed all four of my properties almost from day one,” noted Gerentine. The Silver Gardens project will see Rupco partnered with Gerentine for the first time in a joint venture throughout the development and construction of the project, rather than just in the management of the finished product.
Under the leadership of CEO Kevin O’Connor, Rupco already owns or manages 751 affordable apartments across numerous developments in Ulster, Orange and Greene counties.
“We often act alone as a nonprofit in development,” said O’Connor, “but we also do joint ventures. The federal government and the state government obviously have an interest in creating affordable housing, and so provide a mix of tax credits and subsidies and grants [for us] to be able to build housing that is operated at affordable rent levels.”
The Nyshcr funding package includes up to $1,093,583 of low-income housing tax credits, $1,757,520 from the federal housing trust fund, $5,000,000 from the senior housing program and $427,500 of clean-energy funds.
It’s part of Rupco’s philosophy that local governments as well as state and federal sources should pitch in with incentives. “We’re one of the largest taxpayers in the City of Kingston,” said O’Connor, “based on our combination of Pilots and the number of buildings we have. And so we think it’s a fair exchange.” O’Connor noted that no payments in lieu of taxes (Pilots) were pursued for this development and none were offered.
The addition of care for special-needs communities makes this project unique when compared to previous Gerentine developments. “So we have 57 one-bedroom apartments that are all for age 62 and older,” said Gerentine. “Twenty-seven of them will be for special needs, and a few units for the chronic homeless, and a couple for people with HIV.” Some units will also be specifically designated for seniors who are veterans with special needs.”
“It’s going to have some additional support for special-needs seniors,” added O’Connor. “Through the Empire State housing initiative, we are able to have additional dollars to help pay for the resident services, and we’ll have quite a bit of residential coordination staff on site, not 24 hours but seven days a week, and we’ll have a part-time driver to be able to provide transportation.”
Gerentine praised the involvement of state senator Michelle Hinchey in securing funds. “She was very much a supportive advocate for affordable housing. Very vocal about it,” said Gerentine. “She was a big asset, going to Albany and stating exactly the need for this type of housing in Ulster County.”
The 57 units at Silver Gardens may not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the supply of affordable housing available to qualifying local seniors, Future applicants won’t have to be residents of Ulster County
“We cannot just designate Ulster County,” said Gerentine. “The state won’t allow us to do such, location- wise. The housing will be decided from a lottery, and this is open to whoever puts an application in.”
O’Connor is enthusiastic about the idea of guaranteeing seniors who have worked all their lives a monthly voucher upon their retirement to provide for housing throughout the sunset of their lives.
“Well, we at Rupco, we would love to launch a voucher program that would reach all seniors in economic need upon retirement,” said O’Connor. “We administer the only housing voucher program that we have, which is the federal housing choice voucher program, otherwise known as Section 8. Only one in five people in economic need for the voucher receive it, so the program does not reach all the people who would benefit.
“Factually women outlive men. and women earn much less than men in their earning years. They don’t have the retirement programs that men have had. So we’re talking about our most vulnerable populations, seniors that have worked and toiled to serve this country. To take care of them, currently there isn’t such a program.”
Construction of Silver Gardens is scheduled to begin in November.
Join the family! 
